Freedom City Issue 3

[Nyanki] had been paying attention to whole commotion going on, really she had! It was just, she was pre-occupied listing warning after precaution after warning to the scientists as they messed with her ship and its minimus containment field. All of the weapon systems were locked down – she’d done that long before she headed out, but there was still the automated security to deal with, and what not. That resolved itself soon enough, freeing Nyanki to react just in time to Archaic’s plea for help. ”On my way.” She moves like a bolt of poofy green-panted lightning, the ground beneath her actually cracking – and in some cases making small pot-holes from the sheer force of her steps. In a split-second or two, she’d be on the scene, right behind Chymera and Archaic. One delicate-looking hand reaching out to grab the back of her ruined shorts. She doesn’t blink or hesitate, trusting in Archaic’s odd-tablet looking thing to do its job. With the shorts (or simply the back of Chymera’s head) in one hand, and the small of her back in the other, it’s a simple matter of a lift, a pivot, and a positively superhuman amount of muscle power for the space cop to execute a quick throw, aimed not at a building (there are people in those), not at a vehicile (ditto) but the cement. She had the time to think “I really hope the odd armor-guy doesn’t end up flattened by this”.

Paragon blinked at the swing of a now very primal, very ape-like arm at Archaic. Joe wanted to say "I told you so," but not simply was this neither the time or place for it, also the Goat-man didn't seem smart enough to appreciate that he had been correct, Archaic in all likelihood wouldn't admit being wrong and the alien probably wouldn't know the phrase -- he bit his tongue. Shaking his head Paragon simply turned around casually, putting his back to the fight, and placed a hand on a metal lamppost and allowed it to stick to his flesh. Hoisting his foot off of the ground he'd deliver a powerful kick to the pole and break it so that he was now armed with a ten foot pole. Looking over his shoulder, Paragon whipped around as fast and as hard as he could in an attempt to smash the makeshift staff against the bridge of Chymera's nose. As he spun he frowned as his eyes didn't land on Chymera but rather on the cat-girl from space. He didn't think he'd be able to stop in time. "Watch out!" he called to Nyanki powerfully as he could manage. He knew the alien was tough, but not how tough, and this particular swing was originally slotted for a person who could have easily grown an elephant hide and rhinoceros horn before Joseph had even turned around. Could get messy.

Chymera snarled when Archaic avoided her grab for his skull; feeling the pain and the numbing pain of the pinched nerve, she dropped any attempt to do anything with that arm and instead moved to grab the man with a large tentacle. The nerve gas distracted her, making her light headed. She stalled out on trying to grab Archaic, her focus going to herself. She managed to seal off her nostrils before she felt too many effects of the gas--she looked quite alien herself now, with a shark-tooth fanged maw, an insectoid carapace growing over her head and face, with reptilian slit eyes. She shielded herself off from the majority of the gas's effects just in time to get grabbed by the spacecop. She lashed out angrily with her tentacles, which sprouted bony protrusions and porcupine quills in waves, before being flung into concrete. She was momentarily stunned, but the carapace did its job and she was nearly instantly back on her feet. She sank into a crouch, snarling.

Archaic watched the others attack and fend the creature off, at least when you asked for help you got it in spades from these folks. Rolling to his feet he noticed the woman/creature adapting and defending herself from the gas effects, and decided if she adapted so well to standard attacks, he was going to have to think outside the box, and go for a more direct method of knockout punch. Reaching down by his feet, he picked up a manhole cover dislodged in the previous donnybrooke with the shapeshifter and slung it like a discus right for the bridge of her nose between her eyes . Of course this meant he straightened and threw just in time to get whacked in the back by Paragon's light pole, and sent fling asshole over elbow to one side . He lands with a metalic crash, curse and thud several feet away and groaned as he started to collect himself, the inertia dampeners in his armor saving him from both impacts, even if he would be bruised tomorrow , " Help.......me not her" he muttered, catching his breath.

Nyanki was, for a second, concerned that *she’d* be the one to be introduced suddenly and energetically to the light-pole, but Archaic managed to get in the in just the right time to save her that minor indignity. ”Nice swing.” she laughs, taking a deep breath and centering herself. This time, she wouldn’t charge in head-first, recklessly leaping around and kicking freaky things. Sure, Archaic and Paragon’s batting practice was worrisome, but then they’d only known one another for a very short while. While the manhole-cover was still in mid-flight, Nyanki hopped up and, in a maneuver that would make the greatest soccer player in the world jealous, delivered a picture-perfect side-roll kick-thing that turned the man-hole cover from quick bludgeoning projectile into sub-sonic death projectile, headed straight for Chymera’s torso, dead center of mass… and quite neatly away from anyone else on the scene. If it missed… well, it’d likely end up burying itself a few meters underground.

Chymera growled low in her throat at all of them from her crouching position. From one of the myriad eyes now sprouting on her carapace-laden head, she saw the blur of the manhole cover-turned-death before Nyanki kicked it--she leaped straight up, iron-strong muscles like springs propelling her far up--a momentary flash of wings, and she was clinging to the side of a brick building by her fingernails. She grin-grimaced at all three of them, fanged mouth drooling saliva that hissed evilly as it landed on brickwork and cement below her. She eyed them for a moment, then sprang from the wall at the prone Archaic with a throaty roar, gorilla arms extended with machete-length talons at the ready.

Goat guesses it's more or less picked up from where they left off. He seems, however... to just be watching. Placidly. While he eats a rock like a cheeseburger and absently taps the ground with the tip of his shovelblade. Tink. Tink. Tink. The ground under him seems to be distorting in time with the taps - but only to draw mass from around it and rise slightly, leading to a tiny hill surrounded by an equally tiny ditch. Perhaps he's unaware that he more or less is working with the heroes, and thinks he's a spectator. Spectators need a good view, right!?

Paragon reacted without thinking and while hurriedly calling out an apology to a one mister Helix he was already running for and then up the building which Chymera had affixed herself to. To be fair, Paragon cannot simply run up walls, the ten foot pole, now slightly damaged thanks to Archaic being in the way, was used to vault himself up a few feet, locomotion carried him a few running steps above this height, and the occasional grip with his clingy hand and press of strength ensured he could always keep his motion up to simulate being that damn awesome. When she was but a few feet away Chymera dove for Archaic once more, "I think she has a target!" Joe called out as he pushed off of the wall with all his might and twisted in the wind. "She's after you, Helix. Get out of dodge." On the way down Joseph wondered over the intelligence in his jumping from on high as he just did. Sure, it wouldn't hurt him, but he was headed straight for Chymera, pole held above his head in both hands like a mallet, and he was going to swing it straight down at her the instant she was within reach of it. He might hit Archaic again. "Whatever," he muttered, "Guy is wearing armor."

Archaic grunted and stood up straight yet again, it's not the size of the dog in the fight and all that, but he was getting tired of getting flattened and swatted around by the heavier hitters of this little squaredance. His father's voice chimed in his helmet over thier satilite uplink as he surveyed the cuurent posistions and conditions of the others and the shapeshifter. " Chris, you can't go toe to toe with her or it, and I'm not sure any of the others, even the cat alien can for long, the shapeshifter is to adaptable, too vesitle for a slugfest. Look around you, the enviroment, your assets, improvise!" He nodded just slightly, aleady deciding that brute force wasn't the answer, but as the creature sprang forward at him from her perch on the building he didn't have time to plan, only react. Bending almost double over backward, supporting himself with his palms and his heels in a almost Matrix like bridge manuver, he allowed her talons and fangs as well as most of her torso to pass harmlessly overhead before snapping into a full handstand and planting both his powerfull feet firmly against her hindquarters to give her a little extra shove toward the building behind where he hand landed after Paragon swatted him with the lightpole. It was a demonstration of flexibility and gymnastics that would make any balance beam coach proud, as he knipped back from his hands to his feet nimbly and spun to see where the creature ended up. His eyes caught Goat out of the corner of field of view and he took his father's advice , improvising as he ran toward the other seemingly simple minded man, just in time to step out of Pargaon coming in behind Chymera with the lightpole again, it all working out to seem like he did it all with purpose and style! " We're going about this all wrong, we have to contain her before we can stop her, I think I might know how if you can help me ?" he asked, taking Goat by the elbow and leading him in a trot toward his hightech motorcyle nearby if he could get the other man to follow along.

[Nyanki] “Tricky beast. Need to limit mobility.” Nyanki thinks, a frown darkening her features for a moment. Then, as if a light-bulb went off in her head, she brightens. “If either of you can cover me, I should be able to keep her from jumping away from everything.” Sure, had she really wanted to avoid drawing attention to herself, she wouldn’t have said anything – but if she could get Chymera’s attention her way, she was confident she could hold her own while the others devise something worth a damn – and hey, was that Archaic who just sounded like he had a plan? Perfect! That’d work out just great. Even with her Universal Communicator, her next words were unintelligible gibberish, her fighting stance abandoned for a slack, relaxed posture. Both hands traced bizarre, glowing patterns in the air. Goat, probably, would recognize this as something very similar to his own shovel-magic. While she invoked and traced, her defensive capabilities are all but ‘nil. It was a risk the cop was willing to take – and a gamble that she hoped would pay off either way. As she chanted, the air seemed to ‘thicken’, and feel unnatural. The hair would stand on the back of people’s necks, goose-bumps would erupt, dogs would howl, you name it. She was doing something crazy, even for an alien. “All I need is a bit of time…”

Chymera dove for Archaic--and missed. And was propelled with even more force at a brick wall. Oh was was a shapeshifter wearing rhino-hide thick carapace armor to do but roll up into a ball and take the hit, through the wall? Armadillo-like, she did so, and in doing so Archaic helped her avoid Paragon and his light pole. She emerged from the rubble of the wall and shook herself off, a wave of fur and then quills following the action. She grinned widely, too widely, showing off rank after rank of acid-spittle-coated teeth. She rumbled a growl, then shifted uncomfortably as ram horns sprouted from her thickly armored head. Digging her claws into the debris, she lowered her head and charged for the light pole-wielding Paragon.

Goat gets dragged off his perch, and led toward a motorcycle. Of course, he has no idea what to do with/about it, so he just tries to decide whether to eat it or not - until, that is, the sensation happens. He huddles down a little, lifting his shovel as if to ward it off - it might be similar to his shovel magic, but it's alien and feels weird. (Doesn't conjure memories of probing, though.) The goat on the shovel's eyes and mouth seem to bulge, as if it's grinning. So, in short: He's gone to the motorcycle, but now he's holding a shovel with what appears to be a manically gleeful goat painted on it like a vampire-fearing priest would clutch a cross if Dracula kicked in the door, wielding lung-nunchucks and drinking out of a beer hat - confused, overly terrified, and pretty much not remembering that he was getting dragged toward a motorcycle.
Archaic felt the change in the air as well, under his armor his hair rising and chills running up and down his spine, it intensified as he looked at Goat's shovel. He shrugged the heebie jeebies off and tugged on the man's arm, climbing on the bike and motioning for Goat to do so behind him as he brought the machine to life with a click of a control and a low hum mixed with a powerfull grumble of the engine. " You can make earth move right?" he asked the other man, still trying to get him on the bike . " I want to try and make a pen, or a dome if you can around her, I'll do all the driving, all you have to do is make the ground jump up behind us and over her, can you do that?" he asked, starting the cycle toward Paragon and Chymera as he talked as he could get the other man on .

Paragon smashed into the ground and took a knee, the impact would rattle the pavement after it shattered it. Paragon looked over to the side and smiled as he saw Archaic with the Goat-man. Nyanki was gesturing and speaking in some alien tongue that he didn't understand in the least (being science-based he wouldn't pick up on the changes so well). Turning to look at the hole in the building that the shifter had made upon impact, Joseph's smile dropped when he saw the animal-girl charge him. In times long past, to catch a charging warthog, trackers would take a knee and point their pole arm at the beast and let it come. Paragon did this with his light post but watched it buckle and telescope as the mass and velocity of the girl demolished his weapon. "To hell with it," he muttered as he rose from his knee and widened his stance. Crouched a bit Paragon held his arms out wide, palms facing the charging animal. He'd try and grab her by the horns, stick to her, and with his damage resistance and superior strength maybe toss her to the ground. From there he'd wing it, hopefully it would work and hopefully he'd have the time necessary to kneel over her, legs pressed against her arms at the shoulders, and rain down with a series of blows with his fisticuffs. But one thing at a time.

[Nyanki] Perfect. All the pieces were in place, the things she needed to say were more than half-done. There was now a charge in the air, a definite feeling of tension and a kind of sharpness that forced things into absolute clarity – colors seemed brighter, edges sharper, smells stronger. Nyanki’s odd-alien performance continued, the street-lights nearby turning themselves on and off, buzzing like a swarm of enraged hornets. Anyone nearby old-fashioned enough to wear an analog watch would, if they looked, notice the hands spinning wildly out of control. By the time Paragon had grabbed the deadly shifter, the light-posts, the traffic-lights, the head-lights of the nearby-vehicles and even the EMT’s flashlights all turned on at the same time – and began to brighten, impossibly so. She didn’t know what Archaic’s plan was – but she’d have to wait and see. It still wasn’t ready, as impressive as it seemed. Standing in the middle of this crazy light show is one space-cop, who is standing in front of a large round dinner-table sized circle of glowing symbols. Those familiar with arcane workings would doubtless recognize a few of the bigger ones, but the vast majority was something entirely unknown. Still, she could not act. But she looked darned cool!

Chymera grunted in satisfaction when she felt the pole crumple against her armored skin, blinking in surprise when she didn't end up with one trampled, horn-beaten man, but one sticking to her horns. She was pulled off her feet, but lashed out to bearhug Paragon with spine-coated tentacles as she lost her footing, her velocity carrying them both for moments. If she could pry the man free, she'd fling him at Archaic and Goat. If not, she'd heft herself to her feet, rise up for all the world like a grizzly bear, and attempt to slam the man grappling her into the concrete by those self-same horns.

Goat stares about like a frightened animal - but he gets on the bike, taking a clue from the way Archaic seats himself - not that he has a clue what the hell Archaic wants him to do. "Make the earth move? No - let it." He squints, thinking for a minute about what the hell he's supposed to do - he doesn't quite remember what a pen is, for a few moments. Then he tilts his head and decides to just make one of those things they put birds in. Poor birdies. Lost in his thoughts of birds in cages, he doesn't seem to pay any attention to the sensation - or to the increasingly manic-looking goat on his shovel. Or to Chymera's attempts to hurl herself at them.

Archaic nodded to Goat as he climbed on the bike behind him and started toward where Chymera and Paragon where tussling with one another. "Now, just hold on to me with one arm so you don't fall off, lean when I do and the way I do, and drag the shovel behind us, let the Earth move?" he suggested. He noticed the other vehicles around them going haywire and hoped his own bike with it's state of the art computer systems would be if not immune to whatever in the hell the spacecop was doing, at least hold it self together and running long enough for him to do what he planned. If Paragon got flung at him and Goat he would just slide the bike right around him and keep coming, if he didn't get flung he would yell at the other man to let go and get clear as he began to spin around the shapeshifter on the bike, staying well out of reach while circling her at high speed, and if Goat understood and could, used his shovel to build a quickly rising dome shaped wall of stone like an igloo around Chymera. " Now all we need is a lid for the box!!"

Paragon smirked as he grabbed a hold of the shifter and immediately attempted to toss her on her side to the pavement but he underestimated her strength and locomotion and found himself only half as successful as he had hoped to be. Clinging to her horns with little effort, he would soon feel the crushing weight of those arms wrap around his body. Ah, but his arms would be free as they were held at angles to hold her by the horns. Paragon would refuse to release the beast entirely but knew that if she poured on the strength he'd eventually be unable to breathe. Releasing one of her horns Paragon lifted his arm into the air and began slamming it straight downward at an intercept with her skull. He'd do this over and over again until they hit the ground from the tumble. Once Chymera rose up, he'd do it again, but this time resorting to using the double axe-handle styled melee. In the mean time, lifting his feet to make the girl take all of his weight, Paragon would press his feet against her torso and push out with all the strength he could muster to try and break free of her grip by pressing outward against her arms. "You're one impossible bitch, you know that?"

Goat does something like what Archaic suggests - except he grips with his knees, and doesn't seem to need urging to know when to lean. He doesn't make an igloo, really... just... a cage. A spiral-barred cage of earth that just wants to reach the sky, really, topped with a star-shaped bunch of spikes.

[Nyanki] ”And…DONE!” Given the time she had needed, Nyanki’s crazy symbol-magic finally took effect. The sources of light that were acting unnaturally continued to do so – but this time, it was something far, far more grand than simply brightening. The light snakes away from its emitter, twisting and roiling together like a long string of spaghetti mixed with a serpent. Impossibly, the serpentine light-form streaks out towards the shifter, exploding in hundreds or thousands of individual tendrils. If one looked *really* closely at the shimmering, shining strands, they’d notice small links, as if it were a chain. Like a crazy-Irish-shifter seeking swarm of magical missiles, the things streak towards Chymera, twisting and turning in-flight. Were she slow, distracted, or otherwise unable to get out of the way quite fast enough, she’d find herself quickly confined, wrapped in a cocoon of oddly narcotic light. The tendrils would ignore Paragon, simply passing through him as if he weren’t there. They would leave a sensation rather akin to a million nails on a million chalkboards, though. That horrific spine-shiver inducing sound/feeling. Goat’s awesome cage made of earth didn’t stop them either! They’d pass through the bars (if indeed there were any) and do their wrapping thing. Breaking them would require not sheer physical might – but a kind of mental exertion that only a calm, relaxed person could manage. also blows out every lightbulb in a four thousand foot radius

Chymera snuffled wetly when the impact of Paragon's fists against her skull sank in through the armor; when he pressed his feet against her chest to try to lever himself out of the bearhug, she merely tightened her grip, with the express purpose of crushing him--his legs, his body, she didn't care. She grinned ferally. "You love i--" she managed through teeth that to all appearances were chunks of sharp shrapnel embedded in grey gums, before the geomancer's rock-cage caught her attention. It distracted her in time to see the ribbons of light stemming from Nyanki. Instantly, she dropped Paragon like a sack of soil, lost her rams' horns, lost the carapace, and was suddenly an extremely lithe young woman with wings and ape-like feet and hands. Using these orangutan appendages and her wings, she clambered quickly, hopefully quickly enough to evade the ribbons of light, and headed for their creator at another full-out charge, sprouting carapace to protect her as she moved.

Paragon gasped quietly as air filled his lungs more completely than they had in the past minute or so. Normally a Navy man can hold his breath, but the fight was using up his body's natural stores of oxygen and that would reduce the effective safe time drastically. The girl was off like a shot and Paragon sighed heavily, "She's like a bullet, aim and fire, aim and fire with no directional changes." As the words passed through his lips the light chains that the shifter had been attempting to dodge swept through his body and the pain was intense. The problem with being damage resistant was that the things that did get through tended to be exceptionally painful and then came the factor of not being used to having things hurt. He wouldn't let it show, though. No, it may hurt worse than anything he could remember, but all he'd do was stand perfectly still on his feet and bite down on his lower lip for a few seconds. Cracking his jaw, Joe took a tentative step forward, then another more secure one, and another; before long he'd charged clean over to one side of the cage in a beeline for Nyanki and simply bulldoze'd his way through the earth that made the cage wall. "Right," he muttered to no one in particular as he lifted his head and tried to keep his eyes on the shifter.

Archaic watched the shifter escape yet again, not able to see Paragon inside the earthcage Goat had constructed and worried about his possible state of health when the shifter came out alone.He let out a sigh of releif as the other man pounded his way through the earth and took a deep breath as he watched the shifter charge the spacecatcopgirl. He looked over his shoulder at Goat, and nodded "You're doing great but we need to do something a little different if you can, just let go of the earth when I say?" he asked, gunning the now headlightless Charger on an intercpetion course between the target and the shapeshifting train bearing down on her . The bike would reach speeds of near a hundred miles an hour as he kept it straight and true in a line, untill the last second when he would twist the handlebars shaprly to one side, plant his leg on the ground, hit the break and swing it in a tight one eighty half arc. "NOW!!" he shouted mid manuver to Goat, if everything worked as he planned it, he would unchain a a solid "wave " of Earth and concrete that had been in his tow and send it to crash into Chymera at double it's original hundred miles an hour the bike had reached, like a wave crashing into the base of a sea cliff. Working or not he would quickly gun the bike again and race back out of the shapeshifter's path .

Goat 's just doofy enough to have not pulled the shovel out when told to - but it just turns into a situation roughly like the earth is turning to mud - but then the abrupt brake yanks the shovel free, and the earth solidifies - well, the concrete. Sucks for anybody in it.

Nyanki stands her ground as the charging shifter approaches, even managing a grim smile. Chymera avoided the shiny ribbons neatly, though there was doubtless a close call or two. ”Sho.” Nyanki says, breathing out in a slow and utterly relaxed – or perhaps exhausted sigh. Her muscles and stance were slack, completely and utterly relaxed. There’s no warning – not a cocky “Gotcha”, not even an out-stretched melodramatic palm gesture for what happens next. There is not an explosion of magical energies, a flickering fireball, or anything of the sort. The only indication of anything being out of the (extra)ordinary is the supremely confident smile the cop wears. Archaic, with his extensive knowledge of at least some martial arts would easily recognize what Nyanki was doing, what the totally relaxed, formless ‘stance’ she held was. That quasi-mystical ‘flows like water’ method that allowed for rapid – in Nyanki’s case, incredibly swift- motion from out of nowhere. With seemingly as much effort as drawing a breath, the catgirls’ hands flash to her hip, her ‘sword’ activated. She meets the charge head-on, the beam thrust forward, dead-center of mass. Impalement and the subsequent kick to the head to dislodge the shifter from the sword is a definite possibility – even with that avoided, there’s still the matter of the shimmering serpents of shine, still bearing down on the shifter. Like a bad itch, you can get away from them for a while… but they just keep coming back.

Chymera was hit by the wall of concrete/earth-turned-mud-turned-earth and sank to her ankles in the solidifying road, then was seized upon and bound by the swatches of light ribbons, all just before she ever reached Nyanki. The psychotic Irish girl screeched and writhed as best she could. She enhanced her musculature and grew an absurd number of limbs of all sorts, attempting to find or reach the breaking point of the light ribbons. She pulled with strength at her feet, and the asphalt cracked ominously.